Stephanie Smith had never thought much of the rough-and-tumble sport of ice hockey. But an experience in a hospital emergency room in 1993 helped her realize the hockey arena would be her missions field.
A professional athletic trainer, Smith was filling in for a friend who worked with an amateur hockey team the night she found herself dealing with both a serious head injury and a waiting-room brawl between opposing players.
She not only broke up the fight, but also led the roomful of angry players in prayer for their injured colleague.
“After everyone settled down, people began asking me about what they described in me as a ‘quiet strength,’” Smith recounted. “I shared with them the hope that I have in knowing that God is in control.
“It was that Halloween night that I discovered that my medical training and my faith naturally work together and are a perfect fit for working in the hockey community,” Smith said.
Since then, she has used her platform to foster a growing Christian influence in the amateur hockey community.
Most recently, she and her husband, Ross, launched the Twin Cities Northern Lights — a junior-league hockey team founded on distinctly Christian principles that last year defied all expectations to win a state championship and place fifth in the USA Hockey national tournament.
Through their youth evangelism role with the Minnesota-Wisconsin Southern Baptist Convention, the Smiths also are among nearly 5,200 missionaries in the United States and Canada supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. They were featured during the recent Week of Prayer.
Stephanie Smith works with both a private high school and the Northern Lights organization, while also helping churches learn how they can reach out to youth in their own communities.
She also has received recognition nationally for her skills, including an opportunity to serve as a trainer during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
“(God) is trying to get the attention of people in the hockey community, and let them know that He loves them and would like to have a personal relationship with them,” she said. “To so many people we’ve met this is brand-new information.”
The Northern Lights, which they founded in 2002 with Ross as general manager, was another example of a God-given opportunity.
Their players must abstain from tobacco, drugs and alcohol, and are required to complete 100 hours of community service each year.
Payers aren’t required to be Christians, but it often becomes contagious. And churches are regularly enlisted as partners in the effort, serving as volunteer hosts at games.
“Our team is a bridge where people can see that there is a place for God in hockey,” Stephanie Smith said.
That’s important in Minnesota, where one in nine residents has some type of connection to the sport.
In the midst of their busy schedules, the Smiths are ever mindful about turning conversations toward God.
At one summer hockey camp — staffed by the Smiths — nearly 200 children and teenagers made public professions of faith in Christ.
“Hockey is a sport known for violence, anger, lack of self-control and just acting out of who you are,” Stephanie Smith said. “Christianity is about God transforming us, giving us control and meekness — power under control.
“Once people notice the difference, they want to know more. And that gives us the opportunity to talk about a relationship with God,” she added. (BP)
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